Another Brilliant Year!

Speaking from the young generation of Folkies (I'm 23 and was with 3 friends aged 22, 21 and 17) I found the bands playing this year were very lacking for my taste. Don't get me wrong, Artists such as Waterson:Carthy were brilliant and I have loved seeing them. It was ventured earlier in this thread about lacking in bands to bring in the young generation, I have been going to fylde for well over 8/9 years now and have seen some amazing acts. Groups like Bluehorses and Wolftones are some of the greatest i've ever seen and if they played again I wouldn't miss them for anything!

However, there's obviously a large number of "Older" folkies (if you'll excuse the term) that don't like some of the sounds from these groups. I remember a number of comments after Wolftones played and half of the main hall walking out when Bluehorses played. This leads to people complaining and these groups not being invited back and does therefore alienate a fans of these groups.

It's impossible to please everyone in a festival and this is understandable, however it's a shame people will say there isn't a large youth population at fylde as in the last 9 years i've seen the population grow considerably.

On a final note, the Milton Street Signing in procedure. This is a first in the 3 years of Milton Street. I popped in at 1:40 to catch the last 20 minutes of the youthwave session. I asked the people there if the session was still on, to be told they were on all day. I explained that I was after the session not a workshop and I was invited to start one in one of the empty rooms. Finally I found out that the session was still running but was in a room now not the main hall, the door was shut and I didn't feel like opening the door and disturbing things to join in. And as for having to sign in and out, I understand that for fire safety reasons a record needs to be kept but a simple count of incomming and outgoing people should have suited better and would have caused the queue to enter the building.

Otherwise, Great festival! Looking forward to next year already!

Simon